The Holidays are right around the corner, and your website can either work for you during that time, or it can work against you. Your customers will be looking for an updated site with holiday specials, bargain deals, and gift giving and shipping options.
Once you have established your domain, perfected your store and built your authority through quality guest posting you are ready to get to work prepping your site for the Holidays so you can wow your customers.
Holiday Decorations
If you have a physical store, you decorate the windows, the outside, put up a tree, and maybe even string some lights. There is no reason you should not do the same thing with your virtual location, your website.
This means that you can change headers and fonts to those with a holiday theme. Change your pictures and your backgrounds. Alter your homepage with a Holiday theme.
One key to this approach is to try not to be offensive or polarizing. There is nothing wrong with the phrase Merry Christmas, but you should also include other Holiday greetings, or keep your sentiments very generic.
You probably have a diverse customer base, or you may want to use this time to expand yours or even establish a new one. Embracing diversity and trying to remain as neutral as possible is the key to not being offensive.
There are decorations that work for every type of celebration and every holiday. Trees, lights, Santa hats, and more cross-cultural boundaries. Use these types of themes and decorations to entice your customers and get new ones.
Sales Timing
When it comes to Holiday sales, timing is everything. Christmas is right around the corner, but the stores are already prepping with what is being called Gray November, the sales that start long before Black Friday.
Even if you don’t get in on these early sales, you need to be prepped for Black Friday and the December rush. The sales need to be early enough that shoppers have time to select and ship their gifts in time for them to make it by Christmas.
You can help the timing of your sales work by offering discounted express shipping, extra shipping options even at an additional cost, like International Shipping. Partner with UPS, FedEx, and other major carriers so you know shipping deadlines to assure delivery by Christmas. Clearly post these on your site for your customer to see.
Offer last minute deals too. There will always be shoppers that wait too long to make purchases and then panic. Offering them sales and overnight shipping options is the best way to reach them.
Evergreen Content Marketing
Speaking of Christmas trees and holiday decorations, a key component to your website is your content marketing: blogs, landing pages, product descriptions, and more.
When we talk about evergreen content marketing, we are usually talking about blog posts and other content that endures the test of time. It is not tied to news or a particular holiday. However, in this case, evergreen content can mean something a little different.
You can create Holiday content you can use every year. This means it does not speak to this year’s trends or the latest technology. It just talks about Holidays in general: thankfulness, giving, gratitude you have for your customers, and the fact that you like to give back to the community.
There is nothing wrong with timely content though. You should feature this year’s trends and sales, and describe to your customer how you fit into them, and what benefits your product or service offers as a gift. This type of content marketing can stimulate growth and opportunity, but it only lasts for a limited time.
Evergreen Holiday content can last for years, and keep serving your website and your customer each Holiday season.
Lighting Up Landing Pages
Each year, it is likely that you have new products or services, new coupons, and other actions you want your customers to take. No matter what the purpose of your landing pages this holiday season, they will have several key elements that make them effective.
Killer Holiday Headlines: Every landing page needs a killer headline that grabs attention. A Holiday theme tells the user this one is special for this time of year.
These holiday specials need to be unique. Something needs to set them apart from the offers you have year-round. Whether that is a special offer, coupon, or discount, or a unique product or service that related directly to the Holiday, the key is to instill in them a sense of urgency. They must have a reason, besides the press of the Holiday season, to act now.
Limited time offers, limited time coupons, and timed sales make a huge impact. Think of the success Amazon and other large retailers have with four-hour or one day sales. You can leverage the same type of urgent sales for your business by lighting up your landing pages.
Christmas All Year
The Holidays are a great time to attract new customers, outreach to new audiences, and build the presence of your brand by making it wider. However, you want to work to keep those customers year-round.
This means you need to follow up. Make after Christmas and ongoing offers. Solicit reviews for your products and services by asking customers about their experience.
The holidays can offer you the gift of a lot of new contacts and customers It is up to you what you do with them.
Prepping your website for the Holidays is pretty easy, just like decorating your home or business. If done correctly, it can be something that keeps giving to your business and your customers all year long.
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